Resumo

The Recife’s School was a Brazilian movement during the last quarter of the 19th century, whose main goals were to inform the Empire Court of provincial problems and introduce Brazil to ideas and theories of German philosophers. The first history of Brazilian literature was written in 1888 by Sílvio Romero and is considered part of this movement. According to this work, Brazil should be connected to German thought. Romero’s reception of the German authors is not passive; he engages in dialogue through his text by connecting, criticizing and elaborating upon his references. The autonomy of thought he proves in this process is the same autonomy he demands from Brazilian intellectualists. In order to develop the talents inherent to Brazil, he believes they should widen their cultural horizons, instead of only being dependent on French culture. Only then Brazil would be able to occupy a position equal amongst developed nations. Romero’s conception of race and his idea, that it is possible to include the totality of Brazilian literature in his work are both out of date. However, in the História da Literatura Brasileira there are methodological aspects in common with the modern theories on writing histories of literature, such as the choice of texts not only according to aesthetics criterions and the interdisciplinarity, because the author relates biology, sociology, economy, and politics with literature.